With USB 4, Thunderbolt 3’s benefits become open to all

On Mar 4, 2019

Hot on the heels of USB 3.2 receiving a confusing Gen 2×2 suffix, the USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF) has today announced USB 4, the next version of the ubiquitous connector. Although the draft specification won’t become official until it’s published later this year, the standard is expected to increase its maximum speed to 40 Gbps over the 20 Gbps offered by its current version, USB 3.2.

If that speed sounds familiar, then that’s because it’s already offered by the Thunderbolt 3 specification, which first started shipping on devices way back in 2015. However, in order to encourage adoption in 2017 Intel announced that it was going to make the standard available to other chipmakers, allowing anyone to manufacture the technology, royalty…